Termination of partially completed contract

Q: Does the project contract for partially completed projects have to be terminated or not?

A: Terminating a contract for a partially completed project is not necessary. 

In principle, the PO should qualify a project as "partially completed" when some but not all the activities planned in the project contract have been completed by its contracted end date.  It is possible that by April 30th 2024, a project is only partially completed but that after that date the Project Promoter manages to finalise the implementation of the project with other funds. If by the time of the submission of the Final Programme Report (FPR), the PO can conclude that all activities in the project contract have been completed, then the PO should report the project as "completed" in the FPR (see point 1.1.2. of the Closure Guidance). If even with additional other funding the project remains partially completed, its reporting status in GrACE at the time of the FPR should remain "partially completed". 

The category of "terminated" projects is, however, a specific category. It is there to take note of the projects that were stopped by the PO, Project Promoter or in agreement by both parties. In this case, the project contract has been terminated before the project reached its contracted end date (this can be a date before 30th of April 2024). These projects should be registered in GrACE as "terminated". However, if the PO estimates that these projects have eligible expenditure, the PO should provide information and an assessment of the costs which are considered eligible. This is why terminated projects with costs should be treated as "partially completed projects" (see point 1.3. of the Closure Guidance). 

A termination of the project contract usually will happen before a project gets the status of “partially completed” (which it gets at the final date of eligibility). By that time, the contract of a partially completed project often expires and, therefore, can no longer be terminated.  

The legal situation of contracts for projects after 30 April 2024 is something that remains at the appreciation of the PO. If the PO has to amend the project contract to allow for the continuation of a project with other funds, or if the PO enters into a new contract with the Project Promoter for additional funds, this is no longer relevant to for final programme reporting. What matters is only reporting information on the status of the projects, which after 30 April 2025, can only be "partially completed" or "completed". For projects with a project contract end date beyond the final eligibility date, there is no added value for the Grants in information that these would be terminated after the final date of eligibility.